


Phantom Pain

by graylights



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Didn't Know They Were Dating, Idiots, M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:47:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23353432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/graylights/pseuds/graylights
Summary: They were always warned about Nibel dragons. If only they'd taken that warning more seriously.
Relationships: Zack Fair/Kunsel
Kudos: 19





	Phantom Pain

**Author's Note:**

> CW: Third degree burn wounds. Severe, permanent scarring.

He remembered hearing about Nibel dragons plenty. Mostly during his training.

Rumors of some of the mightiest SOLDIERs only barely escaping them unscathed during their nesting season. Stories of infantrymen easily wiped out in one breath of fire. And as he'd set his first foothold within the higher ranks, he'd seen the scars of those seasoned by them. Got them their promotion, they'd say, decorated in the trace of claws and teeth that had once clutched to arms, that scathed bellies and legs. But the worst of it... The worst of it left him staring without meaning to. Sure, those Seconds and Thirds were probably used to it, but that didn't make it any better that he had. Especially when they weren't the only ones to notice him stare like that.

Especially when things went south as they had.

It was only supposed to be a quick three day trip. Ride out to Nibelheim, do what they came to do the following morning, spare a night at the inn, and then head back to Midgar. In this case, it meant spending a day walking up the dangerous paths of Mt. Nibel escorting a lab coat to collect samples from the mako springs for their latest mako fusion project. And it wasn't as if the two young SOLDIERs were alone in this. ShinRa had known how bad it could get. Had known that it wasn't a mission to take lightly. That's why Angeal had been with them. Maybe he'd even promote them to Seconds if they impressed him, Angeal had gently teased.

The lighthearted conversation didn't last. One moment, they had been taking point at their instructed posts. The next? All hell had broken loose. The loud snarl had been their only warning before an aggressive female had come after them. They'd come far too close to her nest- something realized too little, too late. In seconds, the damage was done. The scientist lay dead, but they weren't the only ones to have suffered a harsh fate and the young Third found himself screaming his lungs out.

"Kunsel! Kunsel! No, get _back!_ " 

He swung wildly in defense between friend and dragon before his mentor took the dragon by surprise, off-balancing it and drawing its attention away. Despite the way terror gripped him, he wasted no time kneeling down to retrieve his friend, slinging him over his shoulder and rushing away as fast as his legs could carry him. The heavy, thunderous roar of the dragon behind him seemed a world away; he put all focus into that mad dash to get as far the hell away as possible even as his eyes began to sting harshly, vision blurred.

"So, what'd they say?"

It had taken everything for him to work up the courage to ask him. It had taken even more to enter the room to see him as he was. To see the bandages that obscured the majority of his face and left his right shoulder completely mummified. But he was his best friend, someone he'd given his word since they were cadets that he'd be there with him through thick and thin. Who had known part of that would have meant this? Who knew that even someone with so much wit could still end up on the wrong side of a wave of smoke and flame? Someone who turned at the sound of his voice and still managed to smile weakly despite cracked, raw lips.

"Well, they say I've gotta lay off the mails until the swelling goes down. Otherwise, I'll end up forwarding the latest rumor about Sephiroth's routine hair treatments to the general, himself."

The Third shook his head sharply. "That's not funny, man. You _know_ what I meant." What semblance of a smile that had been fell quickly at those words, those chapped lips now nervously licked.

"A month, give or take. They say if they rush the healing that'll make it worse." There was a pause before a careful prod followed. "And don't you even _think_ of giving me that look I know you're probably giving me right now. It wasn't your fault, Zack." The young man on the other side of the room looked away despite himself, mumbling something incoherent under his breath.

"What was that?"

"...Call me if you need anything. Okay?"

That smile returned, that one that didn't quite reach his eyes- and Zack knew it had nothing to do with the bandages over them. His heart sunk even harder in his chest, even as his friend softly agreed. Even as they continued that careful conversation for just a little longer, just until the nurse came to check up on his friend and the young Third took that as his cue to fall back out of the room and into the shuffle of the busy wing.

He never ended up calling him in the end. Zack would check his phone time and time again. Each time less expectant than the last. But still habit. Still concerned. Just as he'd still make that time to see him when he could. But each time, there seemed to be less and less to talk about. Each time, his friend seemed to coax him away earlier and earlier, hassling him about missing out on his time for training. And being a SOLDIER kept him busy. Kept him assigned to mission after monster exterminating mission. Whispers of a war on the horizon filtered through the complex, too. Part of him wondered if his friend would ever return to the field by then. Or would he be shipped out with a different platoon later on? The thought of that made him swallow hard, tension trickling down his spine.

The young SOLDIER had just gotten back from his latest assignment, shuffling off mud-caked boots and peeling out of his soiled uniform top when Zack spotted him sitting quietly at the foot of his bed. He'd been so quiet, Zack hadn't even realized he wasn't alone until he'd heard the chirp of that familiar PHS go off. Wide eyes fixed on his companion sporting a new uniform, helmet and all, that made it suddenly feel like that month at the hospital had never happened. That he'd never seen the tattered, charred light blue knit hanging off of him in the niche he'd holed them up in until he'd been found by his mentor. That he'd never heard-

"Long time no see." In the silence of the barracks, his voice felt like it carried too loudly, even for as soft as he spoke the words. But still, it was enough to get his friend's head to turn. To get Zack, himself, to frown a bit, even as he was greeted with a vague wave.

"Hey, Zack. I didn't think you'd be back so soon." His chin tucked into a nod. He didn't raise his head after that but rather procured the PHS from his pocket and started typing away at a message. Zack watched him without a word, even as he continued to address his clothing until he was down to nothing but his boxers. He threw a towel over his shoulder just as quickly as he threw his next words.

"Manage to get a number from one of the nurses while I've been away?" The tease faltered much more than it should have, something meeker gnawing at his usual bravado as he started down the aisle. The soft pluck of keys and a touch of a mutter answered him. Zack's brows furrowed as he drew steadily closer. "...Kuns?"

"Let me finish this."

That gained about a five second pause from the Third before he nudged again. "Hey, I'm heading down to clean up if you wanna join me. We could catch up-?"

"Zack, what did I just tell you?"

"So, is that a 'No'-?"

"You're gonna make me lose my train of thought."

"Or do you want me to wait on-?"

" _No!_ I'm busy, _okay!?_ "

It was the sudden, uncharacteristic snap to his voice that did it. That got Zack reaching to pluck the PHS from his friend's hand. An indignant shout followed as Kunsel tried to snag it back, but Zack wouldn't have it. "So, you're telling _me_ you have enough time to send mails to everyone else but _me?_ Is that it!?"

It was those words that caused the young man to freeze in the midst of trying to take back his phone. To slowly let hands drop while he ducked his head, shoulders slumming. Zack's own hands remained up as they were for only a moment more before he, too, relaxed his stance. Carefully, he ventured, "Seriously, what's gotten into you, man?" When silence was the only thing that greeted him again, Zack sighed before he found himself slowly coming to a kneel in front of the fellow Third. Ruefully, he reached up to catch the hand he'd so desperately swiped the PHS from, sliding the phone back into his palm. Gently, he helped to tuck his friend's fingers around it even as he tried to watch him from under the visor of that helmet.

A slightly shivering exhale came from his friend who started to turn his head to the side only to stop suddenly with a wince at the touch on his shoulder. Zack winced along with him before his eyes seemed to light up past the usual mako glow. He retrieved that hand only to reach out again... and this time, it was to cup the side of that helmet. "...Can I see?"

Another question gone unanswered- but this time it answered everything. His other hand came up to join the first one. And when he wasn't met with resistance, gently, he lifted and pulled. It came off easily enough, leaving a sway of uneven, damp hair. It almost looked as if he were purposefully sporting a new half-shaven hairstyle. Almost. The pronounced vein-like contours and hollows of too red skin told otherwise. And it didn't end there. They traveled downwards, expanding to his forehead, raising skin in uncomfortable ways from the arching remnants of what used to be a full eyebrow to the puffy eyelid. It only finally ended along the ridge of cheekbone where it followed back as far as his ear.

And in all that time he lay his eyes on him, studying each line and sunken valley of skin, his friend kept his gaze lowered. But Zack couldn't miss the dimness in them. The same dim touch that he'd seen in the eyes of far too many before. But this was different. This was Kunsel, his best friend, and he was... Zack lowered himself further, more into a crouch than a kneel to meet his eyes- fighting the urge to let his own wander anymore than they already had at least in that moment. Even as he asked as calmly as he could muster. "Does it hurt?"

That at least earned a scoff out of his friend. "Does it hurt, he asks."

"You know what I mean."

"Here and there. They say it's phantom pain at this point."

Zack didn't wait for his cue as he shifted stance once again, raising himself up to plop down on the bed beside him. "So, I can do this then." It was the only warning his friend got before his arm came around the back of the fellow Third's neck. Hand cupping the back of his head, Zack tucked Kunsel's head underneath his chin as his other arm curled around him. "I'm glad you made it out alive, you know. I mean for a moment there, I thought I'd lost you. -You know. Almost."

At first, Kunsel did nothing- said nothing as he seemed to process what had just been said. But then his own arms slowly reached up to find purchase, to wrap around him in turn as he prodded back, "You know it'd take a lot more than that to take me down." The answer, itself, made Zack smile. Or maybe it was the hint of the grin in it despite the slight waver they held that brought that out of him.

"Stealing my thunder now, are you? Not cool, Kuns. Keep it up and you'll have all those girls fawning all over you."

"You almost sound jealous," his friend shot back with a chortle- one that ended with the touch of something soft against the marred skin of his forehead.

"Maybe I would be," Zack breathed out against him, "but only a little bit." The smirk that followed was undeniable. The shove that followed after that? Expected. But the kind of expected that got a howl of sudden laughter bubbling up out of Zack, that quickly became contagious until there they were. Two idiots bent over slapping knees in their obnoxious fit that would have left any passerby slowly vacating out of the room. Zack rubbed one eye- then the other as the last of his chuckling gave way and he took in a deep breath, releasing it slowly. He met the fellow Third's eyes again with a smile more fond than anything.

He leaned in again, planting his lips briefly on what little remained of that brow, before rising fully to his feet and slinging that towel back over his shoulder. Almost too nonchalant, he announced, "Well, I'm dunno about you, but I'm sick of smelling like chocobo crap, so I'm hitting the showers! Come join me if you want, okay?" And that was all the invitation he gave before he started back down the aisle. Kunsel watched after him, hand slowly raising to feel where the echo of Zack's touch remained. Then, he shook his head as he gathered himself to his feet to shuck off his uniform and collect his own towel. His smile might have faded, but it didn't stop him from following after Zack.

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this a LONG ass time ago. Four years ago, in fact. Only finally revisited it today and decided I'd clean it up and post it here. 
> 
> There was a fanart circulating of Kunsel with burn scars at the time that influenced this fic, but it's long since been just. Lost to the sands of time aka I can't remember where I've seen it at this point. But if anyone knows and can point me in the direction of it, that'd be awesome! Otherwise, tadah, a rare pair. And lol real slow burn, but maybe I'll revisit them again another time. And maybe that time, I won't take four years before I publish it here. Hahaha!


End file.
